This note to John Hilton is from Maynard Dixon. "Dear John, Be sensitive in perception, circumspect in approach, clear in color, definite in form -- and remember always, it is not the last stroke but every stroke that counts. Yours, M.D." ( Painters of the Desert, Ed Ainsworth, 1960.)

But John's life cannot be defined by his painting alone. He was a man of inquisitive adventure.

Soon after Pearl Harbor, John noticed a few Army officers in a desert restaurant and introduced himself. After pleasantries were shared, the officers asked John's advice as to where to locate a training base for General Patton and his tanks. John circled what he thought to be an appropriate spot on the map and soon John found himself invited as a member of a reconnaissance mission into the desert with Patton himself. On one trip into the nearby Arizona desert, the General chose a certain campsite near two sets of cottonwood trees. John told the General that sidwinders would be passing from one group of trees to the other during the night, but the General being the General stood his ground. Later that night, "old Blood and Guts" found himself drawing one of his pearl handled revolvers and shooting an unwelcomed sidewinder drawn by the light of their campfire

There is much more to tell of Hilton - how he used to burn his less than impressive paintings on New Year's Eve in a revel with other eccentric desert dwellers, leaving bonfire ashes and empty tequila bottles on the desert floor. John believed one had to let go of his or her mediocrities in order to strive for greater work. He believed this was far better than making unrealizable New Year's resolutions.

John held a special love for the Mexican Sonoran Desert and a magical old Spanish town called Alamos where John and his family purchased a summer home. In the surrounding valleys and mountains, he collected rare and often uncatalogued plant and animal species for northern universities.

Can you imagine the steady hands of this gifted painter riding a horse, reins in one hand while carrying a newly captured gila monster in the other? That tale, along with other observations and stories are told in John's skilled writing style, sophisticated composition with with simple and plain spoken strokes, much like his paintings. Sonora Sketchbook is a great read.

And John's creative output wasn't limited to painting or writing. He also played a little guitar and liked to sing. He made a record album with his baritone voice booming out ballads, Mexican folk tunes, and Indian chants. He even sang a tune at the funeral of a friend, Death Valley Scotty, which can be found on John's record album or by clicking the album cover below.

Death Valley was one of John's favorite spots and the locale of some of his paintings. One of these paintings resides behind the visitor's desk of the Death Valley Visitor's Center in Furnace Creek, alongside a painting by his daughter, Kathi Hilton.

Unpublished in any of the books or magazine articles by or about Hilton is a story shared by Kathi Hilton. Famed aviator and industrialist Howard Hughes was a friend of John, and flew in to see him, landing his plane on the highway in front of Hilton's gem shop. On one occasion, Hughes brought fresh Maine lobster, providing it for little Kathi's birthday party. To this day, lobster remains one of Kathi's favorite dishes.

Hilton bent but never really abandoned his parent's hope for him to follow in their footsteps to become a missionary. The cover art on John's record album is a desert mountain painting entitled, "The Power and the Glory." On the back of his record album, he quotes his father who said of one of John's paintings, "Son, that is a sermon in paint."